The value of a shotgun-armed first-person-view drone is that it can attack more than once.
Jan 11, 2025
Ukraine’s shotgun-wielding drones are hunting Russian infantry now.
A video montage that a Ukrainian drone group posted online on Saturday depicts one of the group’s “Winchester” quadcopters performing its usual mission: hunting down and blasting Russian quadcopters before they strike Ukrainian troops.
But seemingly taking advantage of a fleeting opportunity, one operator also took aim at a solitary Russian soldier—or North Korean, if the engagement took place in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast—marching along a dirt road under the Winchester’s flight path.
The drone swooped past the initially unwitting soldier and opened fire with both of its shotgun barrels. Apparently having missed, the drone came around for a second pass. It’s unclear whether the soldier was wounded or killed. The video appears to depict the person dodging or falling.
It’s hard to day whether this signals a shift in Ukrainian drone tactics, but the value of a gun-armed first-person-view drone is obvious.
Most FPV quadcopters are single-use systems. Clutching a grenade or rocket warhead to their bellies, they barrel into their targets and destroy themselves in the process. An FPV might cost just a few hundred dollars, so the type isn’t exactly expensive.
But Ukraine would undoubtedly prefer to squeeze more than one strike out of each of the 100,000 or more FPVs its workshops build every month. Firing shotguns at individual soldiers rather than ramming them with explosives, the Winchesters could become multi-use systems—boosting the number of strikes a typical FPV completes before its self-immolates or gets shot down.
If there’s a downside to FPV shotgun ambushes, it’s that shotguns work best at close range owing to the dispersal of their shot. To blast a soldier, a drone needs to get close. And at that range, it could be vulnerable to the soldier’s own weapon—potentially including the weapon of choice for defeating incoming FPVs: a shotgun.
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I’m still searching for a place that shows details on how these shotgun drones work. Although, I doubt the Ukrainians would be so lightheaded to reveal such info. A shotgun shell as big or bigger than a 20 gauge packs a decent recoil, especially for a drone weighing only a few pounds.
“If there’s a downside to FPV shotgun ambushes, it’s that shotguns work best at close range owing to the dispersal of their shot.”
If I could, I would let David know that regular kamikaze drones that use explosives ALSO must get close to their targets to work.